The only other book by Dashiell Hammett I have ever read was the Maltese Falcon a few years ago. I was at a different point in my life and therefore my take on the book, my ability to assess it's quality (if literature can be assessed for quality) was somewhat less developed than I believe it is now. In any case, I was not particularly impressed by Mr Hammett, though I remember that for some time I listed him as a favorite author because it sounded good and his name is easy to remember. At least to me. He would be among those authors I read becasue they are easy, not because they are good. It took me a while to get through The Maltese Falcon, and I imagine what enjoyment I got came from my picturing Humphrey Bogart in the part of Sam Spade.

I started The Thin Man a few nights ago and while not impressed my Mr Hammett's talent, though I am sure it's there, I find the book easy to read, if not particularly original. I imagine that at the time Nick Charles, wealthy, connected American Private Eye might have been something of a novelty among your down-on-their-luck working-class pulp-fic gumshoes. I don't really care. I don't care about the people in the book either, but, like I said, it's all easy to read.

The Thin Man is cute, it's a chick-flick kid's story of a murder-mystery, and while mildly annoying, it's also vaguely pleasant. I can read knowing that I will not be disturbed in the least, which is a little bit of a relief.

Technorati Tags: Dashiell, Hammett, The, Thin, Man, novel, fiction, mystery, murder, book, books, novels, reading, writing, read, reader, story, stories, Humphrey, Bogart, Movies, Movie, Maltese, Falcon, Nick, Charles

The only other book by Dashiell Hammett I have ever read was the Maltese Falcon a few years ago. I was at a different point in my life and therefore my take on the book, my ability to assess it's quality (if literature can be assessed for quality) was somewhat less developed than I believe it is now. In any case, I was not particularly impressed by Mr Hammett, though I remember that for some time I listed him as a favorite author because it sounded good and his name is easy to remember. At least to me. He would be among those authors I read becasue they are easy, not because they are good. It took me a while to get through The Maltese Falcon, and I imagine what enjoyment I got came from my picturing Humphrey Bogart in the part of Sam Spade.

I started The Thin Man a few nights ago and while not impressed my Mr Hammett's talent, though I am sure it's there, I find the book easy to read, if not particularly original. I imagine that at the time Nick Charles, wealthy, connected American Private Eye might have been something of a novelty among your down-on-their-luck working-class pulp-fic gumshoes. I don't really care. I don't care about the people in the book either, but, like I said, it's all easy to read.

The Thin Man is cute, it's a chick-flick kid's story of a murder-mystery, and while mildly annoying, it's also vaguely pleasant. I can read knowing that I will not be disturbed in the least, which is a little bit of a relief.

Technorati Tags: Dashiell, Hammett, The, Thin, Man, novel, fiction, mystery, murder, book, books, novels, reading, writing, read, reader, story, stories, Humphrey, Bogart, Movies, Movie, Maltese, Falcon, Nick, Charles

The only other book by Dashiell Hammett I have ever read was the Maltese Falcon a few years ago. I was at a different point in my life and therefore my take on the book, my ability to assess it's quality (if literature can be assessed for quality) was somewhat less developed than I believe it is now. In any case, I was not particularly impressed by Mr Hammett, though I remember that for some time I listed him as a favorite author because it sounded good and his name is easy to remember. At least to me. He would be among those authors I read becasue they are easy, not because they are good. It took me a while to get through The Maltese Falcon, and I imagine what enjoyment I got came from my picturing Humphrey Bogart in the part of Sam Spade.

I started The Thin Man a few nights ago and while not impressed my Mr Hammett's talent, though I am sure it's there, I find the book easy to read, if not particularly original. I imagine that at the time Nick Charles, wealthy, connected American Private Eye might have been something of a novelty among your down-on-their-luck working-class pulp-fic gumshoes. I don't really care. I don't care about the people in the book either, but, like I said, it's all easy to read.

The Thin Man is cute, it's a chick-flick kid's story of a murder-mystery, and while mildly annoying, it's also vaguely pleasant. I can read knowing that I will not be disturbed in the least, which is a little bit of a relief.

Technorati Tags: Dashiell, Hammett, The, Thin, Man, novel, fiction, mystery, murder, book, books, novels, reading, writing, read, reader, story, stories, Humphrey, Bogart, Movies, Movie, Maltese, Falcon, Nick, Charles

Jim Thompson's work has the feel of a writer trying to recreate the seaminess and ugliness of real life, and doing a fair job. That seems to be his motive: to let you in on the dark side. To some extent he succeeds, there is an ugliness in his fiction that approximates the more obvious (as opposed to the more subtle) ugly apsects of humanity, human life, human society. Most of it has no shelf-life, transcends the time in which it was written in and the generation to which he belonged, especially since Thompson's mission was never to create lovable characters who have hope and wind up happy.




Technorati Tags: Jim, Thompson, book, books, story, stories, fiction, fictional, noir, crime, mystery, suspense, genre, novel, novels, writer, writing, write,